Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Above is the latest Severe Weather Outlook for Wednesday afternoon and evening, via the SPC in Norman, OK. Severe thunderstorms are forecast within the yellow shaded area on the image, which includes the I-35 Corridor from San Antonio and Austin through Waco and the DFW Metroplex.

An upper-level weather disturbance is forecast to lift across the severe weather outlook area on Wednesday afternoon and evening. This will spark scattered strong thunderstorms, some of which may become severe and produce large hail and damaging wind gusts. An isolated tornado also cannot be ruled out, particularly with any storms that are able to become well organized and remain rather isolated from surrounding activity.

Some thunderstorm activity is likely to already be underway at sunrise on Wednesday over southwest Oklahoma and northwest Texas. Some of these storms may produce hail to near severe limits even during the morning hours.

Meanwhile widespread shower activity with embedded thunderstorms will produce more badly needed rain across the Lone Star state, Northward into Oklahoma tonight and into tomorrow:

Unfortunately, as you can see, the heaviest and most widespread precipitation will take place in areas that don't really need it, such as the upper Mississippi Valley and Midwest.

This, however, is just the first of several disturbances that will affect Texas throughout the remainder of this week. For the period 6am CST today through 6am CST Sunday, total rainfall potential will exceed 1 inch across most of central and eastern Texas, Northward: